The stories dramatise Sharpe's struggle for acceptance and respect from his fellow officers and from the men he commands. Sharpe was born a guttersnipe in the rookeries of London. Commissioned an officer on the battlefield, he overcomes class in an army where an officer's rank is often bought. Unlike many of the officers with whom he serves, Sharpe is an experienced soldier.

Sharpe is described as "brilliant but wayward" in Sharpe's Sword, and is portrayed by the author as a "loose cannon". A highly skilled leader of light troops, he takes part in a range of historical events during the Napoleonic Wars and other conflicts, including the Battle of Waterloo. The earliest books chronologically (they were published in non-chronological order) are set in India, and chronicle Sharpe's years in the ranks and as an ensign. He is known as a dangerous man to have as an enemy; he is a skilled marksman and grows to be a good swordsman. In most of the novels he is a Rifle Officer, armed with a 1796 pattern heavy cavalry sword and Baker rifle, although by Sharpe's Waterloo he has also acquired a pistol. He is described as being six feet tall, having an angular, tanned face, long black hair and blue eyes. His most obvious physical characteristic is a deep scar on his right cheek, which pulls his right eye in such a way as to give his face a mocking expression when relaxed, but which disappears when he smiles, which is not too frequently. By the end of the series he has had three children and two wives, although not at the same time.

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Richard Sharpe was born in London circa 26 June 1777 (he believes that he may be 22 during the early months of 1799) to a prostitute residing in "Cat Lane", and an unknown father. When Sharpe is three, his mother is killed in the Gordon Riots, leaving him an orphan.

With no other known relatives to claim him, Sharpe is deposited in Jem Hocking's foundling home at Brewhouse Lane, Wapping, where he spends his days picking his assigned quota of oakum. He is malnourished and regularly beaten, resulting in his being undersized for his age. Because of this, he is eventually sold to a master chimney sweep to train as an apprentice at the relatively late age of 12. Fearing the high mortality rate among apprentice sweeps (who are forced to climb inside chimneys and remove the soot by hand), Sharpe flees to the Rookery of St Giles (a form of slum), and is taken in by prostitute (and later bar-owner) Maggie Joyce. He stays under Maggie's protection for three years, learning various forms of thieving.

After killing a gang leader during a fight over Maggie, he escapes from London to Yorkshire at the age of fifteen (by creating this back story, Bernard Cornwell made the actor Sean Bean's Yorkshire accent part of the canon of the series). It is possible that Sharpe learned to play cricket in Yorkshire, as in Sharpe's Waterloo the Duke of Wellington attests that "Sharpe bowls fiendish". He also played while training with the Rifles at Shorncliffe Redoubt, (Sharpe's Fury).

Within six months of his arrival in Yorkshire, Sharpe kills a second man, the landlord of the tavern where he is working, in a fight over a local girl.

In 1799, Sharpe is sentenced to 2,000 lashes (effectively a death sentence) for striking a sergeant, with the connivance of his company commander, Captain Charles Morris, but is released after only 200 by executive order. He is assigned to accompany Lieutenant William Lawford on a secret mission to rescue Lawford's uncle, head of British East India Company intelligence, Colonel Hector McCandless. They join the Tippoo Sultan's army posing as British deserters, but are later exposed and imprisoned. Lawford teaches Sharpe to read while they are imprisoned in the Tippoo's dungeon. Sharpe escapes during the Siege of Seringapatam, killing the Tippoo Sultan after destroying a mine meant to devastate the British army. Sharpe is promoted to sergeant, as has been promised, for his successful efforts (Sharpe's Tiger). He also gets away with a fortune of jewels, plundered from the Tippoo's corpse.

Sharpe serves four years as sergeant in the Armoury in Seringapatam. In 1803, while on official business at the fort at Chasalgoan, he is the only survivor of a massacre of the garrison carried out by a turncoat Company officer, William Dodd. As a result, he is taken by McCandless on a mission to identify and capture Dodd. Their search takes them first to the siege of Ahmednuggur and then the Battle of Assaye. Towards the beginning of this battle, Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) orders his six infantry battalions to form into two lines, with his cavalry as a reserve in a third. His allied Maratha and Mysore cavalry are instructed to remain south of the Kaitna to keep in check a large body of Maratha cavalry which hover around the British rear. The opposing general, Pohlmann, soon recognises Wellesley’s intentions and swings his infantry and guns through 90 degrees to establish a new line spread approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) across the isthmus with their right flank on the Kaitna and the left on Assaye. When the dragoon orderly attached to Wellesley is killed in the early stages of the battle, Sharpe takes the man's place, and so is at hand when Wellesley is unhorsed among the enemy. Sharpe defends Wellesley against several Maratha horsemen and so saves the general's life, receiving a battlefield commission for this act of bravery. He joins the 74th Regiment as an Ensign, the first step on the career ladder of a British army officer (Sharpe's Triumph).

Unfortunately both Sharpe and his new colleagues find it difficult to adjust to Sharpe's new status and role, and his superiors in the 74th arrange for him to be transferred to the newly formed 95th Rifles Regiment. Before leaving India, he takes part in the assault on Gawilghur, commanding troops in action for the first time. Once inside the fortress, Sharpe finally confronts Dodd and kills him, receiving a scar on his right cheek as a legacy of the fight (Sharpe's Fortress).

While travelling from India to England to take up his post in the 95th Rifles, in 1805, Sharpe is caught up in the Battle of Trafalgar, his first direct encounter with France and its European allies as an Infantry officer. On the journey he also meets and falls in love with Lady Grace Hale, the wife of a politician (Sharpe's Trafalgar).

Grace sets up home with Sharpe at Shorncliffe, but dies giving birth to their child, who survives her by only a few hours. Sharpe's fortune is assumed by the lawyers to be part of Grace's estate and seized. Sharpe falls into a deep depression, worsened by conflict with other officers in the Rifles, who relegate him to the role of Quartermaster, and leave him in barracks when the regiment is posted to the Baltic in 1807. Sharpe, unable to sell his commission, plans to desert. He returns to Wapping to rob and kill Jem Hocking, the abusive master of the foundling home where Sharpe was raised. Before Sharpe can disappear with the stolen cash, he encounters General Baird, a former colleague from India, who recruits him to protect John Lavisser, a Foreign Office agent sent to negotiate with the Danish Crown Prince. Lavisser betrays Sharpe, and forces him into hiding in Copenhagen, where he witnesses the bombardment of the city and the British capture of the Danish fleet (Sharpe's Prey). In Sharpe's Prey, Sharpe is now referred to as a Second Lieutenant because, as a light infantry unit of the British army, there are no Colours and thus no ensigns in the Rifles.

In Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe is said to have fought against the French in Portugal at Roliça and Vimeiro, both in August 1808. Sharpe is now a Lieutenant in the 95th Rifles, having been promoted, most likely thanks to seniority. This view is further supported by the promotion of Warren Dunnett. In Sharpe's Prey, Dunnett is a Captain, while in Sharpe's Rifles, Dunnett is a Major. This means that the old Major of the Second Battalion in the 95th Rifles died in 1807. Dunnett, being the senior Captain, took his place. The senior Lieutenant in the Battalion became a Captain and Sharpe, as the senior Second Lieutenant, became a Lieutenant. The promotion takes place after Sharpe's Prey, but before Sharpe's Rifles.

By early 1809 Sharpe is in Spain with the 95th Rifles, undertaking the terrible hardships of the rearguard of the retreat to Corunna. Cut off from the main body of the army, he is forced to take command of a handful of surviving but mutinous riflemen (including Patrick Harper), while protecting a small party of English missionaries and assisting Spanish Partisans in the temporary liberation of the city of Santiago de Compostela (Sharpe's Rifles). Sharpe's surviving riflemen that began the retreat to Corunna were:

Some Rifleman were awarded the rank of Chosen Man. Chosen Men were the Napoleonic eras equivalent of todays Lance Corporal. Whilst one step below the NCO (Non-commissioned Officer) ranks, the Chosen Man was selected from the ranks to lead a sub-unit of the Company, often for their intelligence and ability. The rank was unofficial insomuch as it was used only within the Company, with Commanding Officers able to promote and demote at will those who were chosen to wear the single white armband which denoted Chosen Men. They were usually spared ordinary duties, and often went on to become NCOs.

In the Sharpe television series the rank of Chosen Man is used to denote a special unit within the company, where all the Riflemen are Chosen Men, giving Sharpe a group of comrades with which he can form a stronger bond than is the norm between officers and the army's lowest ranks.

After making their way to Portugal, and taking part in the Battle of the Douro, Sharpe and his surviving 30 Riflemen are attached to the Light Company of the South Essex (a fictional regiment) as part of Wellesley's Peninsula Army. Some of the men Sharpe commanded in the South Essex were:

As well as the South Essex, Sharpe found himself commanding another regiment of Rifles. The Royal American 60th Rifles under the command of Captain William Fredrickson were often attached to Sharpe's Company for additional support.

His intelligence work for Hogan and Wellesley brings him the long lasting enmity of the fictional French spymasterPierre Ducos, who conspires several times to destroy Sharpe's career, reputation and life.

Sharpe possibly appears in Simon Scarrow's The Fields of Death, although his surname is not confirmed. A Major in the 95th Rifles called Richard and who, "unusually for an officer... carries a rifle like his men" delivers captured French orders to the Duke of Wellington indicating the enemy's intention to fall back to Vitoria.

Prior to the Battle of Waterloo, Sharpe is appointed aide to the Prince of Orange, so finally achieving the rank of Lt. Colonel. Disgusted by the Prince's dangerous incompetence during the course of the battle, Sharpe deserts his post (after making an attempt on the Prince's life), but comes to the aid of his old regiment, Prince of Wales Own Volunteers (formerly the South Essex), steadying the line and preventing a French breakthrough. Wellesley then gives him command of the unit for the remainder of the battle (Sharpe's Waterloo).

In 1820 Sharpe, now retired and living as a farmer in Normandy, is commissioned by the Countess of Mouromorto to find her husband, Don Blas Vivar, who has disappeared in the Spanish colony of Chile; both she and her husband had encountered Sharpe in 1809, during the events leading up to the assault on Santiago de Compostella.

Sharpe, the son of a prostitute, has almost no memory of his mother, and no knowledge of his father. The author, Bernard Cornwell, in answer to a query on his website, wrote a riddle which he claims contains the father's identity: "Take you out, put me in and a horse appears in this happy person!" No solution has yet been provided or published.

Sharpe is both a romantic and a womanizer; In Sharpe's Rifles, Harper notes that "He'll fall in love with anything in a petticoat. I've seen his type before. Got the sense of a half-witted sheep when it comes to women."

In India Sharpe asks for permission to marry Mary Bickerstaff, who later leaves him (Sharpe's Tiger), and has a brief affair with Simone Joubert, who bolts with gems he left with her for safe keeping (Sharpe's Triumph, Sharpe's Fortress).

His relationship with Lady Grace Hale in 1805 has a more lasting impact; the birth of his first child, who dies only a few hours after his mother, leaves Sharpe deeply distressed. Sharpe also conceives a child with Astrid Skovgaard in Copenhagen, but she is murdered by British spymaster Lord Pumphrey (Sharpe's Trafalgar, Sharpe's Prey).

During the early years of the Peninsula Campaign Sharpe's affections are torn between a Portuguese courtesan, Josefina Lacosta, and the partisan leader Teresa Moreno (Sharpe's Eagle, Sharpe's Gold). Teresa bears Sharpe a daughter, Antonia (Sharpe's Company), in 1811, and marries Sharpe in 1812, but is murdered a year later by the renegade Obadiah Hakeswill (Sharpe's Enemy). Sharpe leaves his daughter to be raised by Teresa's family, and, as far as is known, never sees her again.

Over the same period Sharpe also conducts affairs with an English governess, Sarah Fry (Sharpe's Escape), Caterina Veronica Blazquez, a blackmailing prostitute (Sharpe's Fury), and the French spy Hélène Leroux (Sharpe's Sword, Sharpe's Honour).

For some years Sharpe carried a small portrait of Jane Gibbons, taken from her brother's murdered body (Sharpe's Eagle). In 1813, he returns to England to fetch reinforcements, and meets, elopes with, and marries Jane (Sharpe's Regiment). Sharpe remains faithful to his second wife, until she herself proves disloyal; when Sharpe is falsely accused of theft and murder, she embarks on an adulterous affair with Sharpe's former friend Lord John Rossendale and steals the fortune Sharpe had accumulated in London. It is while searching for evidence to clear his name that Sharpe meets and falls in love with Lucille Castineau (nee Lassan), the widow of a French officer killed in Russia (Sharpe's Revenge, Sharpe's Waterloo).

Although unable to marry while Jane lives, Sharpe settles with Lucille on her family estate in Normandy and raises two children, Patrick-Henri, who becomes a French Cavalry Officer (and a character in Bernand Cornwell's The Starbuck Chronicles), and Dominique, who ultimately marries an English aristocrat.

By 1861, Patrick-Henri, then a colonel in the Imperial Guard Cavalry observing the Union and Confederate armies during the American Civil War, mentions that his mother is "very lonely" so it may be assumed that Sharpe has died sometime before that date.

(The Sharpe Companion gives Sharpe's year of death as 1860, though this is never stated in any of the books).

This is contradicted in the Television adaptation Sharpe's Challenge, set in 1817, in which Sharpe claims that Lucille has already died.

Promoted to corporal. Demoted to private after passing wind on parade.

4 May 1799

Promoted for gallantry to sergeant after Siege of Seringapatam.

Sharpe's Tiger

23 September 1803

Commissioned for gallantry as an ensign by General Wellesley after the Battle of Assaye.

Sharpe's Triumph

c. 1806

On transfer to the 95th Rifles, Sharpe becomes a second lieutenant, equivalent in rank to an ensign, as the Rifles do not have ensigns.

Sharpe's Prey

c. 1807–08

Sharpe promoted to lieutenant – the exact time frame is not referred to in the novels but occurred sometime after the events of Sharpe's Prey and before Sharpe's Rifles.

July 1809

Gazetted by General Wellesley as a Captain after saving the Regimental Colour of the South Essex Battalion at Valdelacasa.

Sharpe's Eagle

January 1812

Reverted to the rank of lieutenant after his gazetting as Captaincy was refused by Horse Guards and in the absence of a vacant captain's position in the South Essex.

Sharpe's Company

7 April 1812

Restored to rank of captain in the South Essex Battalion after successfully leading an unofficial forlorn hope to take the third breach of Badajoz and the death of several captains in the Battalion.

Sharpe's Company

14 November 1812

Promoted to the army (as opposed to regimental) rank of brevet major by the Prince Regent.

Sharpe's Enemy

1815

Serves as lieutenant colonel in the 5th Belgian Light Dragoons (Dutch Army) led by the Prince of Orange during the 100 days. He later acts as lieutenant colonel of his old battalion during the Battle of Waterloo. At the climax of the battle, it is assumed he is given official command after Wellington says, "That is your Battalion now! So take it forward!"

Despite being a fictional hero, Sharpe is often portrayed as the driving force in a number of pivotal historical events. Cornwell frankly admits to taking license with history, placing Sharpe in the place of another man whose identity is lost to history, or sometimes "stealing another man's thunder." Such accomplishments include:

Disabling a booby trap laid for the British soldiers assaulting Seringapatam (Cornwell points out in the novel's historical note that there never actually was such a booby trap, and the event was based on a British shell that struck a magazine in the city days earlier);

The first book was written in 1981, with Richard Sharpe in Spain at the Talavera Campaign in 1809. The next seven books were written in order up to Sharpe's Siege in 1814. The novel Sharpe's Rifles was written next, set earlier in 1809 at the time of the retreat from Corunna, Spain. The next four books follow on from Sharpe's Siege, up to Sharpe's Devil, set in 1820–21. Then came Sharpe's Battle set between Sharpe's Gold and Sharpe's Company (set in 1811). Cornwell then moved to the beginning of Sharpe's army career in British India with Sharpe's Tiger set in 1799, beginning a series of three books, closing with Sharpe's Prey set in 1807. Cornwell followed this with two novels and four short stories which lie between Sharpe's Rifles (1809) and Sharpe's Devil (1820–21).

In addition to the fiction series, and the fictional retelling of the battle of Waterloo, Cornwell published a nonfiction book, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, released in September 2014, timely for the 200th anniversary of that battle.[1]